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BATTLEMENT MESA - The Western Colorado Congress, the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and three area couples filed a legal objection with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Thursday in an attempt to stop drilling activity within a three-mile area of the Project Rulison nuclear site.
The groups and couples have objected to the COGCC's issuing of 16 permits to drill near the blast site south of Rulison, where the Atomic Energy Commission, in cooperation with Austral Oil, detonated a 43-kiloton nuclear device 8,426 feet below the surface on Sept. 10, 1969. The experiment was an attempt to free up commercially marketable quantities of natural gas, but the gas it produced proved to be too contaminated.
The DOE prohibits drilling lower than 6,000 feet in a 40-acre area around the site. The COGCC requires a hearing for any gas wells proposed to be drilled within a half-mile of the site.
Noble Energy Inc. has 13 of the contested drilling permits, while EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) has the other three. The permits were issued from Aug. 7 to Dec. 5, according to the COGCC filing.
The nuclear detonation "necessarily created a variety of toxic and radioactive contaminants, which persist subsurface in the blast area," the groups' and couples' COGCC filing said. They argue that the concentrations of the contaminants and their distribution in the "subsurface have never been adequately determined."
"Drilling as close as (a) half mile from a nuclear bomb site should raise some questions as to the public safety and environmental protection," Pat Warren, whose family lives near the blast site, said in a prepared statement. "We've asked questions and are tired of not getting answers; all the while permits continue to get granted."
In the filing, the groups and couples say that if the contaminants reach the surface or near-surface environment, they could create serious and persistent contamination of soils and groundwater - creating a danger to public health, wildlife and the environment.
"Employment of fracturing technologies, designed to stimulate greater production of natural gas from the subsurface formations, increases the risk that contaminants from the Rulison blast site may reach the surface or near surface environment," the filing said.
The WCC, the GVCA and the three couples argue that the permits to drill should not be approved because EnCana and Noble have not demonstrated that they will meet the state's legal requirements for protection of the environment, wildlife, "and the health, safety and welfare of the public."
Doug Hock, a spokesman for EnCana, said the company's wells are on the very edge of that three-mile area around the blast site.
"It has been our contention that we are following the rules in place. As far as safety goes, there has been no documented evidence that those particular wells would create an issue. Obviously (the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the other groups) are allowed to file legal objections, but we firmly believe that we can safely operate in that area. We don't see a need for those (permits) to be halted."
An attempt to reach Noble was not immediately successful late Thursday.
Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117pyates@postindependent.com
The groups and couples have objected to the COGCC's issuing of 16 permits to drill near the blast site south of Rulison, where the Atomic Energy Commission, in cooperation with Austral Oil, detonated a 43-kiloton nuclear device 8,426 feet below the surface on Sept. 10, 1969. The experiment was an attempt to free up commercially marketable quantities of natural gas, but the gas it produced proved to be too contaminated.
The DOE prohibits drilling lower than 6,000 feet in a 40-acre area around the site. The COGCC requires a hearing for any gas wells proposed to be drilled within a half-mile of the site.
Noble Energy Inc. has 13 of the contested drilling permits, while EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) has the other three. The permits were issued from Aug. 7 to Dec. 5, according to the COGCC filing.
The nuclear detonation "necessarily created a variety of toxic and radioactive contaminants, which persist subsurface in the blast area," the groups' and couples' COGCC filing said. They argue that the concentrations of the contaminants and their distribution in the "subsurface have never been adequately determined."
"Drilling as close as (a) half mile from a nuclear bomb site should raise some questions as to the public safety and environmental protection," Pat Warren, whose family lives near the blast site, said in a prepared statement. "We've asked questions and are tired of not getting answers; all the while permits continue to get granted."
In the filing, the groups and couples say that if the contaminants reach the surface or near-surface environment, they could create serious and persistent contamination of soils and groundwater - creating a danger to public health, wildlife and the environment.
"Employment of fracturing technologies, designed to stimulate greater production of natural gas from the subsurface formations, increases the risk that contaminants from the Rulison blast site may reach the surface or near surface environment," the filing said.
The WCC, the GVCA and the three couples argue that the permits to drill should not be approved because EnCana and Noble have not demonstrated that they will meet the state's legal requirements for protection of the environment, wildlife, "and the health, safety and welfare of the public."
Doug Hock, a spokesman for EnCana, said the company's wells are on the very edge of that three-mile area around the blast site.
"It has been our contention that we are following the rules in place. As far as safety goes, there has been no documented evidence that those particular wells would create an issue. Obviously (the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and the other groups) are allowed to file legal objections, but we firmly believe that we can safely operate in that area. We don't see a need for those (permits) to be halted."
An attempt to reach Noble was not immediately successful late Thursday.
Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117pyates@postindependent.com
